Letters from the Maze Runner
by shivakantha
Summary: Letters from our favourite TMR characters to the real world. Includes letters from Gladers, WICKED employees, and more - both good people and bad people. Endorses my one true storyline of The Second Chance and its sequels.
1. Ava

WICKED Memorandum, Date 015.10.01, Time 20:05

TO: The Readers

FROM: Ava Paige

RE: Thoughts on your thoughts on my thoughts

By any reckoning, I think we'd all agree that I have been, by far, the most difficult character for you to understand.

And while this reaction is not unexpected, it is important to note that this is a time of great chaos in this world, and to work for the greater good often requires many examples of counter-intuitive activity, and the Trials were no exception. Rights-based ethics or rational egoism greatly diverge from simple utilitarian thinking in such times.

While morality is finally a form of indoctrination, I have plenty of reasons to justify utilitarian thought. It is my belief that an action is wrong if it is to be regretted, and right if it is not to be - in other words, morality exhibits temporal symmetry about any point. If we were to complete the Trials and obtain the cure, save millions, then _by rights-based ethic_ , we should not regret it, as to regret it would mean to deny the right of life to millions. But by rights-based ethic, the Trials were also wrong, as it is to deny numerous liberties and rights to the Gladers and I believe this is enough to prove my point - rights-based ethic does not exhibit temporal symmetry.

Further, rights-based ethic does require a natural course of action, a neutral course of action to be set, a course of action that is neither right or wrong, the course of inaction. But how does one set this, for the human body is none but a mechanical system - one, admittedly, with a great amount of quantum uncertainties that we call free will. Is it inaction to not perform the Trials, and an action of whatever defined morality, to perform it? Is it inaction to let the Trials be performed, and an action of whatever defined morality, to stop it?

And for this I shall present to you one of the greatest moral truths ever told, uttered by none other than the great John Stuart Mill himself.

 _A person may cause evil to others not only by his actions but by his inaction, and in either case he is justly accountable to them for the injury._

To not perform the Trials while having the capacity to, would be to be accountable to the damage of the Flare.

Also, I am not a sockpuppet of Brenda.

Seriously.

* * *

( _Comment by Teresa:_ Holy crap, you're human.)

 **Author's note:**

 **That's going to be my go-to justification for utilitarian thought for a while now.  
**


	2. Gally

My _dear_ readers,

I am not a murderer. Or a rapist.

Please. Call me a hateful jerk, a psycho with a vengeance, a rude asshole, whatever (only the third is true, actually, and I'm very proud of it), but don't accuse me of such heinous crimes.

I hate how you guys associate emotional hurt with physical hurt. I might end up emotionally hurting someone (and usually not intentionally, I swear) to prove my point, because honesty is important. Bluntness is important. (Thomas is peering over my shoulder, saying even _he_ agrees.) But I wouldn't hurt an ant. Everything I said about trying to kill Thomas … I didn't say it. WICKED made me say it. I don't make death threats. And I didn't actually want to kill Thomas when throwing that knife, either. I just wondered if it was worth resisting.

I'm a nice guy. Really.

Frypan says the effects of the Changing are dwindling on me. And as much as I hate to say it, Thomas and I are on good terms now.

But I'll break your neck if you ship us.

Oh, shuck.

* * *

( _Comment by Thomas:_ Ants don't have pain receptors. Nobody would hurt an ant. _Nobody_ could hurt an ant.)

( _Comment by Gally:_ Shuck off, Thomas! Nobody asked for your opinion!)

( _Comment by Thomas:_ I thought you said you were all for honesty and bluntness. This includes expressing your opinion when not asked for it. I'll continue to do so.)

( _Comment by Gally:_ Whatever, _Greenie_.)


	3. Chuck

Dear … READERS!

I love how you all think I'm so cute! Seriously, but those guys wouldn't even have gotten out if I didn't find that button! Pretty genius of me, huh?

Well, I had thought a lot about what I'd tell you guys if I got the opportunity, but now that I'm being told to … weep.

So,

Goodbye!

It was great meeting you guys!

Chuck!

* * *

( _Comment by Thomas:_ I'd like to add that Chuck's hair is actually not curly like in the popular depictions.)

( _Comment by Thomas:_ And his eye colour, too - it's supposed to be blue.)

( _Comment by Gally:_ Also, his face is pitiful.)


	4. Brenda

**Author's note:**

 **:Guest –**

 **:Thanks for the quote, I agree completely. As for why they didn't simulate the whole thing, I obviously have no clue, besides the fact that James Dashner wouldn't have gotten a lot to write about ; ) It would be cheaper, too (building a maze the size of a small city is obviously quite expensive).**

 **:Actually, The Kill Order mentions something like a "virtbox", which I think is a reference to James Dashner's Mortality Doctrine. If you believe what James Dashner writes in the Mortality Doctrine, then my explanation would be that WICKED wouldn't have wanted the kids to start hacking into their simulation (obviously, it should be possible to stop such a thing but James Dashner claims it isn't, so … oh, well).**

 **:I can see why it wouldn't be possible to accelerate the trials (making two years seem like two days) though – the human brain probably wouldn't be capable of processing so much in so little time, however little time it might feel like.**

Uh … hey, guys.

I don't really have much to say. Besides … well, I have a request to the Thomesa shippers. Hey, I don't have anything against you. Not anymore, at least. I'm in love with Minho, alright?

Anyway, can you stop representing me as a prostitute or an evil jealous bitch or something? I'm not that bad, really. I'll admit I'm kinda selfish, I mean - I'm obsessed with self-preservation and all (I should ask my mom if that's selfish. Or Thomas or Teresa or one of those guys. WICKED and their moral science … ). But I'm not all that dangerous.

Also, do _not_ ship me and Jorge. Or else I will find you, and I will kill you. Or something like that. Jorge is like eleven years older than me, and something of an uncle to me. Okay? Please.

( _Comment by Janson:_ You're in love with Minho, the Griever's boyfriend? Aw, do you remember how your first words went? Your first words to him were a death threat. Heehee.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ What the hell are you doing here, Janson?)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ Get out.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ You could just block him, you know? If he keeps trolling, I mean. Don't censor him or something.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ So we're not enemies, right? Proven?)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ I mean, helping each other and stuff?)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ Friends forever?)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ Uh … yeah, friends, I guess.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ But do note that it wasn't exactly a case of helping _each other_.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ Also, yeah, we aren't enemies. If we were, I could have let you die at least four times after the Scorch Trials.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ I could have let you die once, too.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ Probably.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ Actually, I don't usually make friends with people who don't understand self-preservation, but for you, I'll make an exception.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ It's funny how you accuse me of not understanding things I choose not to practise.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ Always have to have to have the last word? Well, I won't let you.)

( _1 hour later_ )

( _Comment by Minho:_ Seriously, ladies?)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ YOU CAN SHUT UP!)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ True, that.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ You just agreed with me.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ I tend to agree with content, not people.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ Oh, yeah? But I agree with people, not content.)

( _Comment by Brenda:_ And you should know that that was one of the traits Janson instilled in your dear Thomas during The Death Cure.)

( _Comment by Thomas:_ Can we _please_ stop talking about what Janson did to my head?)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ Good, that.)


	5. Newt

**Author's note:**

 **Very late update, sorry.**

 **:Guest – Don't worry. Under normal, everyday circumstances, the free market is in action and your non-violent material self-interest becomes equal to the utilitarian good for society (and because it's** _ **non-violent**_ **¸ there are no sacrifices involved – everyone affected is benefitted).**

 **Also – it is not practical to ensure that utilitarians are the ones running the world. To quote the great economist Milton Friedman:**

 **"** _ **It's nice to elect the right people, but that's not the way you solve things. The way you solve things is by making it profitable for the wrong people to do the right things.**_ **"**

 **That's the basis of classical liberalism – Say's law tells us that in a free market, your self-interest is equal to your contribution to society. So when individuals have freedom – John Locke's "natural rights" to life, liberty and property – individuals act mostly in their material self-interest, and as long as this is true, society benefits optimally, and without sacrificing anyone.**

 **I'm also starting to doubt my belief that WICKED is really good. A recent review to another story of mine set me thinking … I think you could have a free, voluntarist solution to the Flare problem with people voluntarily choosing to agree to be experimented on – all you need to do is provide them the incentive, such as by giving good stuff to their relatives, and they'll voluntarily join. This will also ensure that WICKED (or the competing hospitals) manage their resources well.**

Dear readers,

First bloody thing. Read the buggin' book. Apparently, _veins stick out of my muscled arms_ , and I _seem to have the strength to pull someone's arm out_ , while helping them stand. So stop turning me into a tiny baby in your fanfics.

Second. Stop treating us like bloody hormonal teenagers going to a high school for dummies. I'm a shank who's got my bloody memories wiped, survived suicide twice, gotten a bullet to the head, had to daily run through a monster-filled Maze as big as a bloody city, run through a desert with zombies, become one of them myself, and become the youngest Law Minister on the face of this buggin' planet. Minho's survived a buggin' lightning strike, Teresa's had her memories messed up a trillion times, Gally got bloody resurrected a thousand times. Tommy has had two of his best friends almost sacrifice his life to save him, has had to seal his emotions and send up his friends to the Maze, shoot one of his friends in the head, do some weird quadruple-crossing business …

Still jealous of us?

Speaking of jealousy, _stop pairing_ _me with random shuckin' girls._ Anastasia's getting jealous, and I can't have that. I tell her to stop reading those bloody fanfics, but she's addicted. As much as I hate to say it, they _are_ addictive. It would have gotten me addicted, too, if only I weren't there in those bloody fanfics of yours.

Teresa was the first and last girl in the Glade.

Period.

If you really wanna bring more girls into the Glade, give 'em Minho. I don't think he'd mind, and I doubt bloody Brenda'll mind, either.

Also, I know I've said a lot of stupid stuff in the past, but that's just my bloody mouth. I'm not that dumb a shank, alright? Tommy's peering over my shoulder now, telling me I'm smarter than Rachel and Aris, and it was my unfortunate status as a buggin' Crank that prevented me from getting a job with those bloody WICKED shanks.

Thank you,

Newt.

P.S. Stop shipping me with guys. Tommy's like a little brother to me, and I've rejected Alby in the past. Sorry.

* * *

( _Comment by Thomas:_ Little? Come on, shank, call me a twin or something.)

( _Comment by Newt:_ 'cause you're younger than me, li'l bro.)

( _Comment by Thomas:_ Well, sure, but based on non-emotional things that are easy to verify, I'm not your brother in the first place. Put it another way, if we go on biological relation, then I'm younger than you, but not your brother. If we go on this vague fluffy 'like a brother' thing, then I'm just 'like a brother', not 'like a little brother'. Put it another way, you could say 'Tommy's like a littler person to me' or 'Tommy's like a brother to me' - In neither case will I be 'like a little brother', however.)

( _Comment by Teresa:_ That's true.)

( _Comment by Minho:_ Let me guess – now Thomas is going to go all smart and Shakespearey and start saying 'Did I beg thee verify?')

( _Comment by Thomas:_ Even ignoring how stupid, pointless and plain intellectually dishonest that would be, why the shuck would I quote Shakespeare? I haven't heard that quote, I don't know or care the slightest about literature and such flimsy, imbecile nincompoopery, and besides, Shakespeare ripped of Marlowe.)

( _Comment by Minho:_ Say that you know nothing about literature then go on to talk about how Shakespeare ripped of somebody. Why shuckin' not?)

( _Comment by Newt:_ The letter above was written by ME to THE READERS, not by or to bloody Shakespeare! So shuck off, you three!)


End file.
